The Trump campaign also announced state directors in Georgia and Oklahoma.
“While other candidates are being forced to scale back on their staffs or consider dropping out of the race, we are assembling an extensive campaign team to harness the tremendous enthusiasm we are receiving from proud Americans across the country,” Trump said in a statement released by his campaign.
Trump is one of 15 candidates seeking the Republican nomination. He has been a front-runner for months but recently has polled second to retired neurologist Ben Carson in some national and Iowa polls.
Scott took over the local countyRepublican party during a period of turmoil, as tea party-supporting activists clashed with the party’s establishment wing in 2012. Then-party Chairman Greg Gantt chose to not run for re-election in April 2012 and Scott was elected.
In a 2013 interview Scott said he had brought new faces into the county party, including those from the tea party, churches and abortion opponents.
Scott struggled to raise money for the county party and saw support from the local’s party’s large old-guard donors dry up. He blamed the changing role of county parties and contributors’ desire to give directly to candidates or political groups.
But the old-guard party members criticized how he ran the party and said he didn’t find enough good candidates or succeed in winning enough elections. They began organizing his ouster 17 months into his 4-year term.
Scott resigned as party chairman in September 2013 and was replaced by Montgomery County Sheriff Phil Plummer.
Scott could not comment for this story. Gantt said he was surprised that Trump had already chosen a state director in Ohio since the primary is in March and the crucial Iowa and New Hampshire contests are the main focus of the campaigns.
“Nothing that Mr. Trump has done has been conventional,” Gantt said.
Scott has been active in politics for years, serving on the ballot committee for a statewide initiative to end Ohio’s estate tax, and worked on statewide campaigns and local races. He managed Clayton Mayor Joyce Deitering’s unsuccessful race against then state-Rep. Roland Winburn in 2012.
Scott is a law partner with Deitering.
He received his bachelor’s degree in political science and urban affairs from Wright State University and an honors Juris Doctorate degree from the University of Dayton. He is an adjunct instructor at National College.
A 2000 graduate of Kettering Fairmont High School, Scott worked as a copy editor and reporter at the Dayton Daily News during his undergraduate years in college.
Scott was named Dayton’s Forty Under 40 professionals in 2015 by the Dayton Business Journal. He is a member of the Dayton Masonic Lodge and Kettering Rotary.
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